Global Warming. How Certain Is It That The Gulf Stream Will Shut Down During, Say, The Next 20 Years?
Global Warming. Also, Apart From More Extremes In Temperature, What Are The Other Likely Outcomes? Could It Be That The Stopping Of The Gulf Stream C
Global Warming : How Certain Is It That The Gulf Stream Will Shut Down During Say The Next 20 Years
Also, apart from more extremes in temperature, what are the other likely outcomes? Could it be that the stopping of the Gulf Stream could, overall, decrease global warming, by freezing up the poles more, and so reflecting more sunlight back out into space? What other effects will there be? Thanks, Tim D, that's really informative (and reassuring - I live in England and am aware of how the Gulf Stream moderates our climate. ~~~ LS ~~~
Best Answer To Global Warming Question
The ocean current known as the Gulf Stream warms the UK and north-west Europe with warm water carried northwards from the Caribbean. Without the Gulf Stream, temperatures in the UK and north-west Europe would be five degrees centigrade or so cooler, with bitter winters at least as fierce as those of the so-called Little Ice Age in the 17th to 19th centuries. As it approaches the Arctic, the Gulf Stream loses heat and meets the icy Arctic waters, cools and sinks beneath the Nordic seas between Norway and Greenland, heading south again, but this time deep below the surface. At the tropics the warmer waters cause the current to rise and it turns and begins its journey north again. This is known as the a€˜North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulationa€™ that incorporates not only the Gulf Stream but also the cold deep water currents that return water southwards again. So that the warm, saline surface waters of the Gulf Stream can continue to push northwards, there must be a comparable, deep return current southwards of cold, dense water from the Nordic seas. And that requires cold icy Arctic temperatures, as cold water is denser and sinks. But if the Arctic loses its sea ice and its waters warm (fresh water released from ice is also less dense than cold salt water and mixes with the salt water causing less to sink) there is less cold conditions to cool the Gulf Stream and cause it to sink and begin its return journey. Warmer Arctic waters, with more fresh water from melting ice could slow and weaken this current system. But if its weaker then less warm water returns northwards, reducing the warmth it brings to NW Europe. Ten thousand years, after the last ice age had ended ice age conditions abruptly returned to northern latitudes when a huge freshwater lake in N. America burst though ita€™s dam and flooded into the North Atlantic causing the Gulf Stream to reduce to just two-thirds of the strength it has now. Ice age conditions returned to the northern hemisphere for a hundred years or so, until the effects of this fresh water were effectively flushed through the system. /d/2007/12/7/31301 Will it shut down? At the moment the answer is that it seems unlikely, particularly in the next couple of decades. But if the climate warms up considerably and a great deal of fresh water is released from melting ice (and less ice means therea€™s less cold water) then it could weaken the circulation, and that would have knock on effects. One to keep an eye on, but not to lose any sleep over at present I think. If it did happen what other effects could there be, these articles should help give some answers. /?pid=12455tid=282cid=9986 /releases/2002/02/ /releases/2007/05/
All Answers To Global Warming Questions
Answer 1About as certain that the Sun will not rise tomorrow.
Answer 2hmmmm been watching "Day after tomorrow"?
Answer 3Nothing is certain, concerning the flows of sea water in the oceans, as far as I know, these flow shut downs during periods of glaciation, but i don't know if there is any data available on periods of meltdown. With stop of oceanic flows the moderating effect oceans have on climate will be limited severely, making global climate more extreme. Stop of the cold flows could badly effect sea life, since these flows bring nutrients to sea areas that are poor with nutrients and oxygen,
Answer 4I do not know a time frame- but I do know that the consensus is that the Gulf Stream will be interrupted, and probably stopped. Even with the effects of global warming, this will make the UK look like Greenland.
Answer 5it is pretty remote. for it to happen it would require massive amounts of fresh water to dilute ocean currents.
Answer 6According to scientists, the melting sea ice(and the eventual ice cap melt) in artics will cool the waters of the ocean which would then slow or stop the gulf stream. This will then lead to the re-freezing of the poles - but to an even greater extent - aka another ice-age. This is the educated theory, but they are still compiling data and trying to find the answers. The sea ice and polar ice cap area was once the size of the USA, now it is that size minus the east coast from the Miss. R over and the states of CA and TX. That melting has occurred within the last 30 years.
Answer 7This is insanity. I wish I could never hear the words global warming again. I wish the world would immediate substitute the words Heather Locklear for global warming. It would make more sense, and it's easier on my ears. Try it. Heather Lockleer. Flows off the tongue, doesn't it?
Answer 8The ocean current known as the Gulf Stream warms the UK and north-west Europe with warm water carried northwards from the Caribbean. Without the Gulf Stream, temperatures in the UK and north-west Europe would be five degrees centigrade or so cooler, with bitter winters at least as fierce as those of the so-called Little Ice Age in the 17th to 19th centuries. As it approaches the Arctic, the Gulf Stream loses heat and meets the icy Arctic waters, cools and sinks beneath the Nordic seas between Norway and Greenland, heading south again, but this time deep below the surface. At the tropics the warmer waters cause the current to rise and it turns and begins its journey north again. This is known as the a€˜North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulationa€™ that incorporates not only the Gulf Stream but also the cold deep water currents that return water southwards again. So that the warm, saline surface waters of the Gulf Stream can continue to push northwards, there must be a comparable, deep return current southwards of cold, dense water from the Nordic seas. And that requires cold icy Arctic temperatures, as cold water is denser and sinks. But if the Arctic loses its sea ice and its waters warm (fresh water released from ice is also less dense than cold salt water and mixes with the salt water causing less to sink) there is less cold conditions to cool the Gulf Stream and cause it to sink and begin its return journey. Warmer Arctic waters, with more fresh water from melting ice could slow and weaken this current system. But if its weaker then less warm water returns northwards, reducing the warmth it brings to NW Europe. Ten thousand years, after the last ice age had ended ice age conditions abruptly returned to northern latitudes when a huge freshwater lake in N. America burst though ita€™s dam and flooded into the North Atlantic causing the Gulf Stream to reduce to just two-thirds of the strength it has now. Ice age conditions returned to the northern hemisphere for a hundred years or so, until the effects of this fresh water were effectively flushed through the system. /d/2007/12/7/31301 Will it shut down? At the moment the answer is that it seems unlikely, particularly in the next couple of decades. But if the climate warms up considerably and a great deal of fresh water is released from melting ice (and less ice means therea€™s less cold water) then it could weaken the circulation, and that would have knock on effects. One to keep an eye on, but not to lose any sleep over at present I think. If it did happen what other effects could there be, these articles should help give some answers. /?pid=12455tid=282cid=9986 /releases/2002/02/ /releases/2007/05/
Answer 9This was one of the points tested in the court case taken out against the Al Gore film in the UK courts. (See point 6) The Uk department of education has been taken to the high court by a father claiming that Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" is unfit for schools because it is politically biased and contains serious scientific inaccuracies and sentimental mush. The presiding Justice Burton will make a final ruling within a week but has already stated that the film does promote partisan political views. This is resulting in the government education system having to amend their Guidance Notes to make clear that: 1.) The film is a political work and promotes only one side of the argument. 2.) If teachers present the film without making this plain they may be in breach of section 406 of the Education Act 1966 and guilty of political indoctrination. 3.) Eleven inaccuracies have to be specifically drawn to the attention of school children. The eleven inaccuracies are: 1. The film claims that melting snows on Mount Kilimanjaro evidence global warming. The Governmenta€™s expert was forced to concede that this is not correct. 2. The film suggests evidence from ice cores covering the last 650,000 years proves that rising CO2 causes temperature increases. The court found that the film was misleading due to the fact that the actual evidence from those ice cores demonstrate that the CO2 rises actually followed temperature increases by 800 to 2000 years and so could not have been causative. 3. The film uses emotive images of Hurricane Katrina and suggests that this has been caused by global warming. The Government's expert had to accept that it was "not possible" to attribute one-off events to global warming. 4. The film shows the drying up of Lake Chad and claims that this was caused by global warming. The Government's expert had to accept that this was not the case. 5. The film claims that a study showed that polar bears had drowned due to disappearing arctic ice. It turned out that Mr. Gore had misread the study: in fact four polar bears drowned and this was because of a particularly violent storm. 6. The film threatens that global warming could stop the Gulf Stream throwing Europe into an ice age: the Claimant's evidence was that this was a scientific impossibility. 7. The film blames global warming for species losses including coral reef bleaching. The Government could not find any evidence to support this claim. 8. The film suggests that the Greenland ice covering could melt causing sea levels to rise dangerously. The evidence is that Greenland will not melt for millennia. 9. The film suggests that the Antarctic ice covering is melting, the evidence was that it is in fact increasing. 10. The film suggests that sea levels could rise by 7m causing the displacement of millions of people. In fact the evidence is that sea levels are expected to rise by about 40cm over the next hundred years and that there is no such threat of massive migration. 11. The film claims that rising sea levels has caused the evacuation of certain Pacific islands to New Zealand. The Government is unable to substantiate this and the Court observed that this appears to be a false claim. The environmental conditions that existed when the cessation of the gulf stream happened in the past were very different from the present, and the spokesman for the department of education was obliged to admit that, given the present environmental conditions, it is impossible in the foreseeable future. In short, it is alarmist propaganda.
Answer 10i'd say 50/50, it would certainly make the UK pretty cold, plenty of very snowy winters the gulf stream has slowed by approx 30% in the last 12 years or so and greenland ice is melting due to magma heating it in a place where the eaths crust seems to be quite thin, either that or theres a volcano under it. This is probably really badly worded but it sounded right in my head
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